Yellow Vignettes (Simon Brake)
These Vignettes were written in 2006, as a creative exercise, and as to serve as character introductions for a game of Insylum. Each vignette is supposed to represent the barely remembered events that led to individuals who had encountered the King In Yellow being locked away in an asylum. The people are, in order: a man who stabs his lover in his bed, a businessman who throws an associate from a window, a man who crashes his car into a MacDonalds, a drug addict, a man falling asleep on a Tube train and someone who is recovering from an injury at home. These have never been published but are presented here for your... 'enjoyment'... --- You stare at the blank screen in front of you, suddenly aware of the ticking... Counting the ticks, you realise they are endless... They are endless, tick tock tick... Your heart beats in your chest... Tick tock tick... You grip the book in your hands, not wanting to see what time it is... Tick tock tick... This is how it ends... You find yourself at the foot of the stairs, your brain ticking... The house is dark... The corridors and halls and rooms all dark... The stranger is wearing a mask... The queen awakens, as if from a dream... She smiles and whispers "I know"... The mask smiles... The clock chimes... A deep dark lake wells up amongst the folds of the featureless pale landscape... --- The voice stops... Hands clapsed snugly behind your back, you turn to face him... Beyond him the City spreads out like a cloak... From up here, in this tower, you can see for miles... Far away the river winds like a snake through the twinkling cityscape... He’s angry... what are you looking at...? "What are you looking at?" You wonder what it would be like to fly out from up here... To launch yourself from this high tower and soar... But he’s not interested... He cannot see... His head all full of figures, of facts... Words, abstracts rules, the bars of a cage... You take him to the window, show him the world stretched out before you... This, the City, the Kingdom, bathed in sunlight... And then, when he laughs, you show him... You show him how to fly... --- The sunshine shining down, catching the road, glass, plastic, metal... Crowds scurrying along the pavement, dodging each other, weaving... Music, discordiant, loud, laughter... The lady in the passenger seat rests her hand on your arm... It pulls back, cradling, a package in her lap... Laughing, sunlight, innocence, happiness... Wrenching the wheel sharply... Laughter, screams, faces frozen in terror, sun on breaking glass... Eyes open... screaming... red... yellow... white... black... An empty hand, reaching out... A pair of hands clenched tight... red... yellow... white... a smiling face watching over you... Glass rain... A peaceful sleeping face beside you... Soft soft darkness... Sleep... --- As you drifted to sleep, you reflected on events past... The storm approaching, thunder rumbling... The dark alley off the main street, dripping with rain... The figure waiting in the shadows, phantom like... An exchange of words, an invitation... A walk through winding streets... A darkened doorway... A decent into hell... A deal... The root of all evil for dreams you can hold in your hand... Dreams you can taste and breathe... Then a struggle... a flash of teeth... An explosion in the light... Grabbing, taking, running, out into the rain... Finally resting, finding answers wrapped up in yellowing sheets... Dreams made manifest, voices made real... And now...? Now just need to sleep... --- You awaken in darkness when the train reaches its destination... The carriage is empty... The doors slide open to let you out onto an empty platform... Winding dimly lit passageway lead you to an empty foyer... Large archways open up onto an empty street... In an empty city, under an empty sky... You’ve never seen the city this empty... Empty streets... empty shops... empty vehicles... You call out... "Hello...?" "Can anybody hear me...?" The silence echoes around your head... Fighting back tears you scramble onwards... Somewhere vague voices beckon you on through empty streets... Eventually you find yourself at the water’s edge... Staring down, you see your reflection looking back at you... Your reflection smiles and turns away, and you awaken, screaming... --- You awaken, not sure where you are... It is dark... a faint glow filters in through a window... A bowl of half-finished food sits in a sliver of pale light... An dull ache in your shoulder reminds you of a bullet wound... How long has it been...? '' ''Hours... days... weeks... months...? The door is open a crack... you clamber to your feer... Picking up something heavy, you leave the room... A staircase leads down to the ground floor of the building... You slowly descend, hugging the wall... You reach the bottom of the stairs, your escape mere metres away... Someone shouts out behind you... footsteps! You turn, a heavy weight perfectly balanced in your hand... Crack! Blood sprays up the ceiling... screams... And again... and again... till the screaming stops... Blood pools as you leave the house.... Stepping out into your street you breathe in the cool night air... Yellow Vignettes, Simon Brake Category:Stories Category:Game Adventures